


Sectumsempra

by Yatorihell



Series: In The Darkness [70]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, ノラガミ | Noragami (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29386194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yatorihell/pseuds/Yatorihell
Summary: The trio tries to find out what Nora has been doing with disastrous consequences.
Relationships: Bishamonten | Vaisravana/Kazuma, Iki Hiyori/Yato
Series: In The Darkness [70]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/547369
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	Sectumsempra

As expected, Slytherin lost to Hufflepuff by a landslide.

The team captain didn’t even bother looking in Yato’s direction once the match ended; he was probably glad to see the back of the supposed ‘Best Seeker’ Hogwarts had ever seen.

Once again, Hiyori and Yukine found Yato in the library following the defeat. It was alive with fifth and seventh years students in a never-ending cycle of revision and studying as they reached the halfway point of the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s exams. Something that Yato really should’ve been doing.

“Why did I get back into Quidditch?” Yato said morosely. He had his head on his arm, stretched out across the table. He received a few dirty looks from a group of fifth-year Hufflepuffs who were trying to find a space to study.

Hiyori and Yukine exchanged looks but didn’t answer the rhetorical question.

“At least you won’t have to play Gryffindor for the cup,” Hiyori said helpfully.

It was slightly helpful. But there was a tinge of sadness that he wouldn’t be playing Quidditch anymore – at least not in Hogwarts, or for his house.

Yato straightened himself and spread his hands on the table with a sigh. “One less thing to worry about, I guess.”

“And it looks like Nora has stopped too,” Yukine commented. “The last thing she did was the wine, and that was before Christmas.”

Yato hummed. Nora had been evasive the entire year – except for her kidnapping and murder attempts –, and now she was openly glaring at him at every turn. He could only feel that something larger was at work.

His mind began to scheme. If Nora was planning something… he could catch her in the act. He’d have the proof he needed that she was the one who sent the necklace and the wine to kill Professor Tenjin.

“Has she been acting differently?” Yato asked, trying to seem nonchalant. “Aside from the murderous stares I’ve been getting.”

“ _We’ve_ been getting,” Hiyori corrected. “I can feel eyes burning in the back of my head in classes I have with her.”

Yukine plopped his chin in his hand, looking thoughtful. “Well, she leaves dinner early almost every day.”

Yato perked up. It had become so repetitive that in his distractions he’d gotten used to seeing Nora leave at least half an hour before everyone else, but Yukine had always noticed from his seat on the end of Hufflepuff’s table.

“Do you know where she’s been going to?” Yato asked.

Yukine shrugged. “Dunno, upstairs somewhere. I don’t think it's a book club.”

“You said that she goes every day?” Yato reaffirmed.

Hiyori could sense trouble brewing from Yukine’s frown. He didn’t like it when Yato showed an interest; it usually led to bad things. “Yeah, every day.”

“Well then,” Yato said. “Let’s find out what she’s up to.”

~

After some protesting from Hiyori and Yukine – and some convincing from Yato that he would need someone to keep him out of trouble anyway – the plan was set.

The next day, Yato, Hiyori and Yukine waited inside the Great Hall at dinnertime. They waited, watching for the moment.

As expected, Nora stood and left, heading up the grand staircase. In unison, Yato, Hiyori, and Yukine stood up and left the Great hall, dinner half-eaten.

When she disappeared around the corner of the stairs, they followed at a pace that seemed too close for comfort. The moving staircases proved difficult to maneuver as they tried not to lose her in the labyrinth of hallways. They’d agreed to split up in case she caught onto the fact she was being followed or tried to use any of the secret passages that led out of Hogwarts.

Yukine split away on the fourth floor where a tunnel was hidden behind a mirror. Hiyori left on the fifth floor at the tunnel guarded by a statue of Gregory the Smarmy, but by the time Yato reached the seventh floor, there was no sign of Nora.

Yato cursed under his breath and paused. There were no signs of life aside from the lit torches set into the walls, but it did nothing to help him. He was careful to stay hidden in case Nora was just around the corner, but she was never there. There were no more tunnels higher than the fifth floor, making it impossible for Nora to have slipped past them. He checked every open classroom and listened at every closed door, checked behind the troll ballet tapestry.

Nothing. Nora had vanished into thin air.

Yato begrudgingly made his way back down to the sixth floor. He found Hiyori at her post by the statue. She seemed surprised to see him.

“Don’t tell me you lost her?” Hiyori said.

Yato would’ve been annoyed at the incredulous way she said it, but he was out of breath from the stairs. “She just disappeared.”

Hiyori frowned. “She hasn’t been down this way – no one has. She must be up there somewhere.”

Yato froze with sudden realisation. “You don’t think…”

“She’s using the Room of Requirement?” Hiyori finished.

It clicked into place the second it was spoken. Nora disappeared on the seventh floor, and they knew Nora was aware of it; she was the one who led Oshi to them to stop their secret Order of the Phoenix.

Hiyori suddenly placed a hand on Yato’s arm and tugged him into the shadows of an alcove, her gaze locked on something behind him.

Yato turned his head. Footsteps rang on the stone behind them and a second later Nora came barrelling past. She didn’t notice the two of them tucked to the side watching as she rounded the landing and continued her descent.

“Get Yukine,” Yato hissed.

Yato kept his eyes locked on Nora as he tried to keep up. She seemed to stumble as she reached the ground floor, a hand clasped over her mouth. The Great Hall was abandoned, the benches empty and the plates cleared as Yato ducked into the door’s alcove.

Nora’s footsteps receded and as Yato poked his head around the corner, she turned sharply and pushed open the door to the girl’s bathroom.

Yato slowly paced closer and pressed his back to the wall of the bathroom. After a moment, running water sounded from within. He hesitated for a moment, debating whether to go to the Room of Requirement and find what she had done, before following her inside.

The bathroom was filled with rows of empty toilet cubicles that stretched to the right. The tall lattice windows cast grey shadows onto the floor, interrupted by mirrors which hung in front of the basins where Nora was splashing her face with water, breathing heavily.

She didn’t notice Yato’s presence as he stepped inside. The door closed behind him.

“What are you doing?”

Nora startled at the sound of his voice. Her head whipped up so her face, paler than the white tiles, reflected back at him in the mirror. Silence hung in the air between them, thick and cloying as the water trickled down the drain. Nora’s head dipped so she was staring into the sink basin, forcing down bile and tremors that coursed her body.

It set Yato on edge to see her this way. Nora was shaken, and she never showed emotion or weakness. Yato took a step closer, cautious but determined. Nora’s grip tightened on the sink.

“Why are you trying to kill the headmaster?”

“Father…” Nora looked up. Words danced on the tip of her tongue; a secret not meant to be shared.

For a moment Nora looked like the scared little girl he’d met all those years ago, her big eyes looking at up Yato and her hand enclosed with Father’s. And then she was gone. The little girl was dead, replaced by a stoic expression and cold eyes that found his as she turned around.

“Why are you doing this?” Yato asked. “What will it achieve?”

“It would bring you home.”

Yato paused. Nora’s voice was so quiet that he may have misheard her, but she made no mistake in her revelation.

“You were meant to fall in love with me, and you would come home with me, back to Father, and we could be a family again.”

It struck Yato harder than it should have; he knew those chocolates never came from Hiyori in the first place. How could she, a Gryffindor, get into Slytherins dorms to place them? But the idea to have him fall in love with Nora, who could’ve so easily led him back to the Sorcerer, was a new, twisted kind of trick.

“The headmaster would die, and the Ministry would fall…” Nora continued.

She paused and Yato felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

“No one would have to get hurt if you came home.”

Nora fired a spell faster than Yato could draw his own wand. He threw himself to the side, landing harshly on the cold tile, and dragged himself behind a row of toilet cubicles. In the midst of splintering tile and flashes of colour and the fumbling for his own wand, Yato cursed himself for not noticing her sliding her wand from her pocket.

She had tried to kidnap him twice. She had tried to kill the headmaster twice. She had cursed Hiyori, poisoned him, and now she was going to take him back to Father if it was the last thing she did.

Yato couldn’t – _wouldn’t_ – let her take him.

Yato threw himself against a wall and peered around the side, narrowing missing a hit as Nora threw another spell at him. Yato ducked as it exploded against the opposite wall and returned fire. A volley of wordless spells flew between them, crashing against cubicles, mirrors, and pipes that burst in a shower of glass and water.

Yato caught glimpses of Nora reflected in the clouded windows and shattered glass and pools of water, but at every turn she was waiting with deadly recoil of a viper. Overhead, under doors, around corners, the attacks were relentless, zapping Yato’s energy as the water pipes doused him as he ran and sought cover. His wand was warm in his fist when the name came.

“Yaboku…”

Yato’s blood ran cold. The glimpse of a shadow from the corner of his eye brought a fresh bought of rage that he hadn’t felt since... since…

Since Sakura died.

White-hot anger filled Yato. One spell reared in the front of his memory, malicious and perfectly crafted to wield hate and turn it into a deadly weapon. One that would end this.

Yato darted out from his hiding spot and stood side-on, and, before Nora could aim her wand, cursed.

“ _Sectumsempra!_ ”

Nora’s winded shriek was cut short by a thump and a tinkling of glass.

Yato edged forward, wand still tight in his hand. Water gushed from the pipes and created a mirrored pool on the floor that reflected the stormy scene beyond the darkened lattice windows. His footsteps rippled the water as he rounded the corner.

Nora lay on her back, wand cast to the side. Blood blossomed through her clothes, saturating them and diluting the water around her until the tendrils had seeped around his shoes. Her chest rose and fell quickly with a mixture of gurgled coughs and cries.

Yato froze. The blood rushed to his ears, blocking out the sound of someone entering the bathroom and their mortified words. A whoosh of black robes brushed by his side – Madame Kofuku, her face stricken as she looked down at Nora, the blood, the spell she knew all too well. She dropped to her knees, wands in hand and already moving over the expanse of Nora’s shredded body, chanting over and over again ‘ _Vulnera Sanentur_ ’.

Yato felt his stomach as he bolted out of the room.

~

The look Professor Tenjin had given him during the hour-long tirade and interrogation about where he had learned such a spell had reduced Yato’s mind to numbness. He admitted everything: how he got the book from Madame Kofuku, cheated in tests, and learned the spell without realising until he snapped.

Yato felt worse when Madame Kofuku joined them. He’d thrown her under the bus, and now she may be fired the same way Daikoku was.

“She’s fine,” Madame Kofuku said as she gently closed the door. “Bruised and shaken, but fine.”

Yato couldn’t even feel angry at that; what he’d done was dark, despicable. Exactly what Father wanted him to be.

Professor Tenjin closed his eyes with another deep sigh. His eyebrows pinched together, and Yato waited to be expelled. Finally, he spoke.

“You can’t take back what you’ve done,” Professor Tenjin said bitterly. He opened his eyes with a gaze that pierced straight through Yato. “But that book must not pass through anyone’s hands. Do you understand?”

Yato felt his stomach knot. Madame Kofuku hadn’t taught him the spell, not directly, not intentionally. It was a forgotten spell, concealed in a book twenty years old that should have never seen the light of day. Her kindness to help him had hurt another and risked her own position at Hogwarts, and for that he alone was responsible.

Yato nodded. He understood.

Yato left the office and made his way down the winding staircase, the book in hand. It was nearly curfew by the time he reached the main hallway, but students still lingered in the dying sunlight in the courtyard. He could feel eyes on him, the looks thrown in his direction by students who knew what he had done.

 _Madman, monster, murderer_ , his thoughts taunted as he tried to ignore their gazes.

Yato was surprised to find Hiyori stood outside the Great Hall, her arms wrapped around her waist as she looked around. There was no sign of Yukine; he was probably already back in the dorms. As soon Hiyori’s eyes caught on him she released herself and took a step forward.

Yato stopped short and hid the book behind his back, as a defense to keep her from the terrible spell within it, knowing what it could do. What he had done.

Hiyori’s eyes caught on it, and she could tell that whatever it was, it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about.

“I need to get rid of something…” Yato trailed off.

Hiyori paused for a second, eyes lowered to where the book rested behind his back and nodded. “Ok, I’ll see you -,”

“Will you come with me?”

The question was rushed in a breath, tentative and desperate. It surprised her – he could see it in the slight way she was taken aback by the directness. He half-expected her to say no, that it was almost curfew, but she didn’t.

“Ok.”

Hiyori fell into step beside Yato as they ascended the grand staircase, the book hidden by his side. They walked in silence, past the dimly lit torches that spread light through the darkened halls as they left the world behind.

When they arrived on the seventh floor Hiyori wondered if Yato was still fixed on finding what Nora had done, until she caught a glimpse of the book behind his back as he opened the door of the Room of Requirement and held it for her.

Hiyori stepped inside. The Room of Requirement had morphed into what they needed – into what Yato needed – right at that moment. Gone were the light fixtures and broken lattice windows, the Deatheater dummies, and the fireplace that kept them warm through training sessions.

The room was stacked high with an assortment of junk. Broken chandeliers that had hung in the Great Hall, tomes and parchments motheaten and rotten, boxes and artifacts and wardrobes and chairs stack high in towers that would fall like a Jenga tower if one item was removed. A tall wooden cabinet stood against the nearest heap, its door slightly ajar yet empty.

The door softly closed behind her, and Hiyori turned.

Yato seemed just as surprised to see the dumpsite as her, but he knew the clue was in the name. Whatever you need, the room would provide. His eyes left the caving towers and found Hiyori. Only now did he pull the book from behind his back and hold it in both hands. He looked down at it, the very thing that had helped him and hurt another.

The silence stretched between them before he held it out to Hiyori.

Hiyori took it gently and read the smeared cover before she flipped it open. It was a Potions textbook, graffitied and worn with age.

“It’s Madame Kofuku’s old textbook,” Yato said.

Hiyori spared him a glance but he wouldn’t meet it. He explained how Madame Kofuku saw him struggle, how she mastered every potion and gave him her book to help, and how he used it to win the Liquid Luck.

All through it, Hiyori listened.

Hiyori flicked through the pages, taking in the expansive notes and edits beside each potion. It fell into place how Yato had become so good at potions, besting Yukine for the entire year no matter the task.

“This is where I…” The questioning look Hiyori gave him was nearly enough for Yato to recoil, to take the book and tell her to leave him to do this himself, but he swallowed it down. “Found the spell.”

The silence stretched endlessly, and Yato felt his blood run cold. He wondered if Hiyori would leave, tell him not to come near her ever again.

_Madman, monster, murderer._

But Hiyori never spoke or moved. She looked at him, not with pity, but with the understanding that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders and made stupid mistakes that he couldn’t take back.

“We need to hide it, so no one will find it again,” Yato looked around, unable to her gaze. “This seems like the best place.”

Few people knew of the Room of Requirement. Merlin’s Cave could’ve been hidden within it and they would be none the wiser.

“Alright, close your eyes.”

Yato looked at Hiyori. Her grip had tightened on the book, but her eyes were clear with intent. He opened his mouth to question, but she cut him off.

“That way you can't be tempted. Close your eyes.”

Yato closed his mouth, and after a moment, his eyes.

He could hear the gentle tap of her footsteps retreat, disappearing and meandering through the lost treasures the room held. He heard his own breathing in the silence, waiting, telling himself not to peak, to avoid the temptation. He was so entranced with his own thoughts that he didn’t realise Hiyori had come back, or perhaps she had meant to sneak up on him.

A smile tugged at Hiyori’s lips as her eyes roamed over his face, taking in and seeing how much he had grown from the boy she had met. He was still taller than her, but she didn’t complain. She watched Yato’s expression; the way his eyes moved beneath his eyelids as he fought the urge to open his eyes, the gentle breath that passed through his lips.

Hiyori felt a pull, but she ignored it. Whatever he had said under a love potion wasn’t real. The feelings that she had for him were just a crush that would fade, even if it had been years since she had realised she liked him. The way he smiled at her, the way he protected her, these were all things friends do for each other.

Still, she could tease him as much as he teased her.

“Maybe I can stay hidden up here if you like.”

Yato startled, but a smile twitched in the corner of his mouth. Her voice was little more than a whisper, unbelievably close to his face, so close that he could feel the heat of her breath and the smell of her warmth.

Yato’s eyes begged to open, even flutter, but he kept them shut as promised. He hesitated before he found the courage to move his head closer to where he thought she should be, seeking her out with the same desperation he would for the Snitch. He didn’t know what he may have said or done whilst under the effects of the love potion, but he knew everything was true when she was only a breath away from him. She must have known it too.

She said nothing more, and after a moment of waiting the door clicked shut behind him.

Yato opened his eyes, and Hiyori was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I am on a roll writing the Deathly Hallows arc, I hope you're enjoying everything so far.


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